For Science

Max Weber(1864-1920)is one of the three pioneering figures in sociology and is known as the "son of Western civilization." He is an encyclopedic scholar who has been extensively involved in his life and has written extensively.The social science methodology,which is the "meta-theory" of Weber's many thoughts,is an important representative of his intellectual complexity.Weber was caught in the whirlpool of the German academic methodological debate in the early 19 th century.He published his critical articles to clarify his own social science methodology.Weber started from the perspective of distinguishing between natural science and social science,but the natural science and social science are not distinct.Weber also brought this ambiguity into the social science methodology.It is necessary for exploring the inner pursuit of Weber's social science methodology to conduct in-depth and detailed investigation and analysis of these vague areas.The social sciences take cultural events as the research object,and the cultural events must contain the value factors of the actors.At the same time,when the researchers of the social sciences select the subjects,it is also their personal value factor to choose the event instead of the event.Value is the most fundamental difference between social sciences and natural sciences.How to deal with the value that represents subjectivity is the key to whether the methodology is "scientific".Weber addresses the inevitable value factors in social science research and seeks to incorporate value factors into the track of scientific analysis.He accurately strips irrational value judgments from the value factors of social sciences,and clarifies that only effective consensus values are the basis of social science research,and thus establish the basic principles of methodological value.On this basis,Weber constructed the ideal type of methodological tool for social science research,and incorporated subjectivity into objectivity.Looking at Weber's social science methodology as a whole,it is better to say that he is trying to make value "scientific" rather than addressing value.Science is the inner pursuit of Weber's social science methodology.The pursuit of science is embedded in the social science methodology itself.In terms of the "science" of the method,Weber acknowledges that there is a huge gap between concept and reality,which is the source of value factors in the field of social science research.From the irrationality of reality to explore how the value factor can be solved scientifically,Weber pointed out that in the context of the value disputing of modern society,it is possible to reach a value consensus between the value factors and only have such value.Only by being able to be included in the objective track by social science research methods,the validity of value is an important guarantee for Weber's social science methodology.Similarly,the object of social science research has an inexhaustible causal relationship,which is the empirical experience of social science research and the objectivity guarantee of Weber's social science methodology.In terms of the "scientific" aspect of the conclusion,Weber distinguishes between means and purpose,and clarifies that the ideal type is only a means to achieve the purpose of understanding,and the means can be general.By comparing the ideal type with the reality,a special and essential understanding of the research object is obtained.Weber's scientific pursuit can also be reflected in his sociology of law.The tension between formal rationality and substantive rationality has been tearing Weber's sociology of law.Weber,who came from the history of law,not only emphasized the importance of professional legal training,but also the style of judges in the "grand period" of the United States.The pursuit of science seems to be "blurred" again.However,any complex social concept needs to be explained in an ideal type,and the law is no exception.This is the basic method that Weber uses.In this way,Weber's study of sociology of law is linked to the methodology of social science,and the pursuit of science should also be reflected in the study of sociology of law that is homogenous to the methodology of social science.Laws in the sense of ideal types have the characteristics of the ideal type of instrumentality,flexibility,and effectiveness.The scientific pursuit of social science methodology implies that law sociology research needs to uphold and develop instrumental rationality.